Today we’ll investigate the various arguments surrounding gendered awards. Primarily at the Oscars. And ask if we should change them into something else? But let’s begin by briefly looking at the history of gender within film awards.

Here Come the Actresses

The Academy Awards introduced the Best Actress and Actor categories at their first ceremony in 1929. The category’s intent was to give male and female stars equal attention and reward them for their body of work over a certain period. Later the Academy began rewarding players for specific roles. Then in 1937, the Academy launched the Best Supporting Actress and Actor categories to honour great performances given by smaller players. These remain the sole gendered awards at the Oscars.

Battle of the Genders

The most common criticism against the gendered acting categories is that acting doesn’t “inherently” favour any gender. Thus it would be much fairer for everyone to compete against each other rather than keep them segregated. Another objection is that acting remains the only gender split category. There should, however, be no reason to split up acting awards by gender when every other award considers men and women “equally”. Finally, despite trying to provide equal recognition the gendered awards have given little representation to people from marginalised groups.

The point about gendered awards lacking when it comes to diversity holds merit. The judgement of performance based on certain gender signifiers limits trans, non-binary and gender-fluid artists. And actors of colour and actors with disabilities are less likely to be included, regardless of their gender – which needs addressing.

Conversely, some points feel less reasonable. For example, although acting isn’t something that any gender is better at, Hollywood is biased towards cisgender men. They generally receive more roles and money than anyone else. Which gives them greater job opportunities and thus more of an advantage over their counterparts. Especially if the men are white and non-disabled. Additionally, while combining categories seems logical, several major gender-neutral categories show poor results for non-male representation. The only gender-neutral Oscar category to always feature female nominees is Best Costume Design. Meanwhile across 93 ceremonies, only 2 women have won the Best Director award. 1 female cinematographer has received a nomination for best cinematography. And women have won 20 screenplay awards, with men sharing 10 of them. The industry heavily favours cis men. Which makes it harder to defend dissolving the few categories that exclusively reward female workers.

Are We There Yet?

There is certainly a feeling that awards like the Oscars need to change. Other awards bodies, like the Emmys, have recently made moves to include more non-binary performers. Allowing them to enter using the title performer instead of the binary actor or actress. This move marks a huge step forward for inclusivity in the industry.

And there are potential solutions to the previously mentioned issues. Such as including more gendered categories e.g. a Best Female Director category to force Hollywood to show more encouragement to female workers. Categories can also have a greater number of nominees to allow opportunities for more workers to be included. And the push for visibility and recognition of workers of colour, non-binary, trans, gender-fluid and disabled workers must continue.

Conclusion

Many believe the current awards system demonstrates that other genders can’t compete with cis men. It can also alienate those who don’t conform to gender binaries and currently provides little representation to marginalised groups. However, gender “neutral” awards overwhelmingly rewards cisgender men (often white and non-disabled) to the detriment of others. Which doesn’t exactly provide encouragement for wholly scrapping gendered awards.

Solutions are available. Ranging from more nominations to more gendered categories to continuing to push for more diversity. But whatever the industry does it must strive for more inclusion and equality before it can claim that the playing field is equal.

Also Read: Oscars-Winning Directors Who Deserved Their Award For A Different Film

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5. The King’s Speech (8.0)

The winner of the 2011 Best Picture award concerns Britain’s King George VI (Colin Firth) working with speech therapist Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush) to overcome his stammer and allow him to deliver his messages to the people of the UK and those in high positions with his own voice.

Despite some critics calling it Oscar bait, The King’s Speech charmed audiences. Not only scoring an 8 on IMDb but also becoming the highest-grossing British independent film of 2011. Initially, it was also involved in controversy because the BBFC gave the film a 15 certificate due to strong language. Despite the swearing serving the point of helping King George through his stammer. Ultimately thanks to the distributor’s appeal, the BBFC re-rated the film as a 12a. It also won Best Director for Tom Hooper, Best Actor for Colin Firth, and Best Original Screenplay for David Seidler.

4. Spotlight (8.1)

2016’s best picture recipient deals with another story based on true events. This time looking at several reporters working for the Boston Globe. Who uncover a series of child abuse crimes within the catholic church.

Spotlight was the first Best Picture winner since The Greatest Show on Earth to only win one other award at the ceremony. The other being Best Original Screenplay for Josh Singer and Tom McCarthy. It also was viewed as a surprise win, with many believing The Revenant would take the award home. Spotlight may have been a surprise winner but its high audience rating and great reviews from many critics show that it’s still something special.

3. 12 Years a Slave (8.1)

Steve McQueen’s dark drama is about the horrors experienced and witnessed by Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a free man of colour living in New York who is captured, sold into slavery and must spend 12 years trying to survive.

12 Years a Slave was not only well-received by critics and general audiences but it also marked the first time that a film made by a black director won Best Picture. And it also earned statues for John Ridley’s screenplay and Lupita Nyong’o’s supporting performance. Showing that while 12 Years a Slave was a hard watch, it was also impactful and important.

2. Green Book (8.2)

Undoubtedly the most controversial Best Picture winner of the past decade. The story follows Tony Lip (Viggo Mortensen) who makes friends with Dr. Donald Shirley (Mahershala Ali) as he ferries him around the southern United States in the 1960s, ensuring he is safely able to play music at venues.

Green Book received several negative responses upon its release for its dated use of the white saviour narrative to tell the story of African American persecution. But it became even more controversial when it won the Best Picture Oscar, even though films from prominent black filmmakers like Spike Lee (BlacKkKlansman) and Ryan Coogler (Black Panther) were also nominated. Although Green Book clearly won over many, as evidenced by its award wins (also winning Best Original Screenplay for Nick Vallelonga, Brian Hayes Currie, and Peter Farrelly and Best Supporting Performance for Mahershala Ali), and IMDb rating, its win remains an embarrassing moment for the modern film industry.

1. Parasite (8.6)

This South Korean masterpiece focuses on the relationship between two families, the rich Parks, and the poor Kims. Asking many pointed questions about class and inequality in an odd, funny, dark, and enthralling way.

Parasite, the highest-rated Best Picture winner of the decade is also one of the highest-rated Best Picture Winners of all time on IMDb and was a trailblazer in so many ways. It was the first foreign-language film to win Best Picture, on top of winning Best International Film, Best Original Screenplay for Bong Joon-ho and co-writer Han Jin-won and Best Director for Bong Joon-ho. Along with this, it became the highest-grossing foreign-language film of all time in the UK. And despite the many controversies with the Academy Awards these past 10 years, seemingly all agree that Parasite deserved to win.

This ends our brief look back at the highest-rated Best Picture winners of the past 10 years. What is your favourite Best Picture winner from the past decade? Let’s hope that the next 10 years bring more Best Picture winners that audiences will love.

Also Read: Parasite Director Bong Joon-Ho Once Described The Oscars As Very Local

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Academy Award for Best Breakthrough Performance by an Actor

That the film industry is packed with established male talent is undeniably true. Previous Academy Award winners are Gary Oldman (Leading Role in 2018), Rami Malek (Leading Role in 2019), Sam Rockwell (Supporting Role in 2018) and Mahershala Ali (Supporting Role in 2019). They already had a long list of credentials behind their names, and so sadly, the category doesn’t really allow upcoming talent to be nominated.

Therefore, we would love to integrate a category that only focuses on actors who make their full-length film debut. It’s hard for upcoming talent to break through in the film world. An Oscar nomination or win in the “Academy Award for Best Breakthrough Performance by an Actor” wouldn’t only give them the chance to stand in the spotlight, but it would probably also be the start of a prosperous career. Actors for this category would be Zack Gottsagen, who puts on an incredible performance in The Peanut Butter Falcon and Kris Hitchen for his stunning acting in Sorry We Missed You

Academy Award for Best Performance by a Young Actor or Actress

Actors and actresses like DiCaprio, Matthew McConaughey, Julia Roberts, and Judi Dench have been gracing our screens for many years now. Being on-screen was probably a desire they had from a very young age. Just like them, many young people have the dream to pursue a job in the film industry, but these days it can be very difficult to shine as a young actor or actress.

To ensure that there will always be upcoming talent, we would like to announce the “Academy Award for Best Performance by a Young Actor or Actress”. It would have given actors and actresses such as Jacob Tremblay (for Room) or Brooklynn Prince (for The Florida Project) more chances of being nominated for an Oscar. If it were integrated now, actors such as Roman Griffin Davis and Archie Yates (both for JoJo Rabbit) and actresses like Shahadi Wright Joseph (for US) would be potential nominees in this category.

Academy Award for Best Directional Debut

Whether it’s esteemed actors who take place behind the camera for the first time or unknown directors who made a spectacular film debut, they all deserve attention for their directional debut. Pretty sure that releasing a debut can be immensely nerve-racking and crucial for a career as a director. Therefore, it would be great if the “Academy Award for Best Directional Debut” became part of the ceremony. If the Academy introduces this category next year, the names of Mati Diop (Atlantics), Ladj Ly (Les Misérables), Olivia Wilde (Booksmart) and Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz (both for The Peanut Butter Falcon) could be on the shortlist.

Academy Award for Best Breakthrough Performance by an Actress

If there’s an “Academy Award for Best Breakthrough Performance by an Actor” category then we also should have the “Academy Award for Best Breakthrough Performance by an Actress” one. By integrating this category, upcoming and extremely skilful female talent actresses would be able to keep their acting dream alive and bring more diversity to the screen. Names like Awkwafina (The Farewell), Debbie Honeywood (Sorry We Missed You), and Jessie Buckley (Wild Rose) would be the nominees.

Academy Award for Best Stunt

It was during the MTV Movie & TV Awards this year that Brie Larson brought her Captain Marvel stunt doubles, Renae Moneymaker and Joanna Bennett, on-stage when she received that award for Best Stunt. Stunt doubles have an immensely important role in films but they’re often forgotten when it comes to award nominations. As the fifth new category, we would like to introduce the “Academy Award for Best Stunt”. With that, we hope that stunt doubles get the attention and awards they deserve for their (dangerous) hard, physically demanding and passionate work. Moneymaker and Bennett would be nominated for this alongside every stunt double that makes the action look amazing on screen. It might be the biggest category, but at the same time, it’s also a very important one.

Do you agree with these five potential new Academy Awards categories? Let us know in the comments.

Also Read: For Your Consideration: Sci-Fi, Comedy & Oscar Snubs

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The Oscars

The Oscars have been going on for decades, the first being held in 1929, and have been held every year since, not letting war, industry strikes and indifference get in the way. Importantly, the Academy, the people who vote for the Oscars, are all in the filmmaking industry. This is in contrast to, say, the Golden Globes, which is voted on by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Membership in the Academy is by being nominated or winning an Oscar, or being nominated by two existing members.

Campaigning

Being nominated or winning an Oscar is not simply about being the best. Studios, and sometimes individuals, campaign for an Oscar. There is a small industry in Hollywood around this, with millions of dollars being spent on advertising and promotional events. There’s not only campaigning for your own, but if you want to do a little damage to another film’s campaign, so be it. When Good Will Hunting was looking like a strong Oscar contender, a rumour started that the film wasn’t written by the stars, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, but by their friend and filmmaker, Kevin Smith. The Oscar business can be pretty cut-throat.

The Right Sort Of Film

I do have a couple of axes to grind with the Academy in terms of who wins Oscars. And while I am still angry, The King’s Speech beat The Social Network for Best Picture, that’s not what I’m going to talk about. There are certain types of films that win Oscars. They tend to be dramatic. They tend to be on weighty topics. They have tragedy in them. Films are often described as Oscar contenders before anyone has seen them, simply by knowing what the film is about. And in my opinion, there are two genres that do not get the level of respect from the Academy that they deserve: science fiction and comedy.

To deal with the latter first, as I said, the Academy loves tragedy. Give them a sad story full of death, illness and struggle, and you’re halfway to your Oscar. But if you make them laugh, they might enjoy it, but you’ll probably not win any awards. Judging by my own criteria, the last comedy to win Best Picture was Woody Allen’s Annie Hall in 1977 (films like The Artist or Argo may have comedic moments, but are not comedies). So no nominations for The Man With Two Brains, This Is Spinal Tap or Shaun of the Dead, films far superior to some Oscar winners. I think comedy is far harder to do than drama, to paraphrase a famous quote that has been attributed to many people – Dying is easy. Comedy is hard.

Next up is science fiction. I went back to 1950 and couldn’t find a Best Picture Oscar-winning film that was science fiction. In Best Director, only Gravity comes close to that category. 2001: A Space Odyssey, one of the most iconic and influential movies ever made, wasn’t even nominated for Best Picture and while I’m sure actual nominees Rachel, Rachel and The Lion In Winter are great films, I feel the Academy made a mistake there. The categories that sci-fi films traditionally get nominated in are technical awards. Only recently have superhero films managed to crack into Oscar awards territory; Logan was nominated for Best Screenplay, and Black Panther for Best Picture. Many people think that The Dark Knight’s omission from the Best Picture nominee was what prompted the Academy to increase the number of nominees.

One of the most egregious Oscar snubs of recent years was the film The AV Club recently put at the top of their list of films of the decade – Mad Max: Fury Road. The film did win some Oscars, e.g. Costume Design, Sound Mixing and was nominated for Best Picture and Best Director, but I was stunned that there was no nomination for Charlize Theron. Not only was Theron brilliant (and already an Oscar winner), but the film ticked a lot of boxes for Oscar films – there was tragedy, there was suffering, and there was drama. Theron’s character, Furiosa, even managed to upstage Max, whose name is in the title of the film.

The comedy equivalent is a bit further back, but the truly brilliant Groundhog Day, which got a grand total of zero Oscar nominations. What more do the Academy want? Groundhog Day is a hilarious comedy, with a unique premise, an amazing central performance from Murray, and is a film that somehow manages to tread a careful line of being funny while musing on the meaning of life. And has numerous suicides.

As I said, Oscar season is soon upon us, and we shall see if this year bucks the trend.

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And here we, as film enthusiasts, find ourselves trapped between a rock and a hard place: the rock being arguably the most famous movie director of all time, and the place being the Western culture of 2019, where content is consumed in a vastly different manner than it was when Spielberg first began his directorial career.

Is this the opening skirmish of a war between the past and present? Are we supposed to pick a side?

Probably not.

When Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma won three Oscars at the Academy Awards (including, most significantly, Best Director) last month, it broke a taboo that perhaps none of us realised even existed.  Roma was put forward for ten awards by the Academy, and though it wasn’t the first streamed film to be nominated (that honour goes to Manchester By The Sea), it was the first to ever win in the Best Director category. That’s a major distinction.

And yet, Roma ruffled more than just Spielberg’s feathers. One of the reasons why the film was considered so contentious by those in the movie industry, in fact, was the way in which it was released. Netflix made the film available mid-December, around the time most Oscar-hopefuls will start distributing their work, and also released it in a few movie theatres at the same time, which was frowned-upon by some because it failed to stick by the 90-day cinema window.

In the run-up to the Oscars, Tom Rogers (former CEO of TiVo) explained why Roma could be a milestone in the history of cinema.

“It’s such a disruptive pick for the Academy to end up embracing something that’s really going to go to the heart of movie theatrical distribution and the whole windowing system it has,” he said. “Netflix came up with a better way to watch television. Consumers have voted. It’s a great way to get what you what, when you want, and how you want it. And they’re doing the same thing with movies.”

CNBC

So while Netflix is indeed breaking new ground, it isn’t necessarily doing anything wrong (in the eyes of most people, anyway).

However, Steven Spielberg wasn’t quite so accommodating, stating:

“I don’t believe films that are just given token qualifications in a couple of theatres for less than a week should qualify for the Academy Award nomination.”

The Guardian

He went on to suggest that Netflix movies should be nominated for Emmy Awards as they’re technically made for television. The veteran director is expected to raise the issue at the next Academy board of governors meeting and argue for a rule change that would ensure Oscar-nominated films adhere to the traditional theatrical run format in order to be eligible for the awards.

So what’s the bottom line here?

Well, it depends what way you look at it. Peter Bradshaw writes:

“Those sympathetic to Netflix contest their opponents’ claim to be the defenders of decent celluloid values battling against an overweening corporate monster intent on crushing the community values of movie theatres. On the contrary, they say Netflix is challenging the privileges of entitled white males.”

The Guardian

Bradshaw does, however, go on to point out that Netflix relies heavily on subscriptions and is simultaneously engulfed in massive, crippling debt – a staggering $28billion – that could quite easily cause the platform to collapse, “leaving us to wonder how we could have been so naive and disloyal in relation to the workable theatrical release model.”

And for those who might try arguing that the current generation is transitioning away from traditional models of cinema towards instant content, it should be noted that just last year, attendance at UK theatres was at its highest since 1970, with 177million admissions.

Perhaps Spielberg has a point, and the purity of the Academy Awards should be preserved at all costs. Or maybe we’re simply in a new era of cinema, one in which we can watch Oscar-worthy films on both our television and theatre screens, depending on our preference.

Surely increased access to quality works like Roma can only be a good thing, after all? Certainly, Spielberg’s contemporary Martin Scorsese seems to think so, with his next film The Irishman set to debut on Netflix later this year.

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